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Originally Posted by ANVIL1
Ty,
You obviously know a thing or two about plastics and bring up some good questions, but first, I feel compelled to say the following:
People have been commenting on our quality and decent prices. Most American companies that manufacture goods that are labor intensive, from hand lay up composites to consumer electronics and medical products, have them manufactured over seas. Even the computer you are using right now is more than likely made in China. Most cell phones and i-pods are made in China. It's the only way to bring products to the American market that are affordable. I remember when made in China meant crap. Well, with the influx of western manufacturers forced to go overseas, along with it came all of the technology and know how. I've been to China and I've seen it first hand. They have everything they need to make products there as well as we can here, but the workers aren't going on strike. They work hard and and it is highly competitive, so they are eager to please (kind of like it was here back in the 30's through the 50's). Now, I don't want to go into a social dissertation here, so I'll just say that I did look into making cf parts here, but I was quoted almost the same price that my current retail prices are. On my last trip to China, I visited several factories and met with many factory reps and came away more impressed than my last trip 6 years prior. So, in order to meet my goal of making cf parts at an affordable cost with quality at least as good or better than the sheet metal parts that are currently available, I had to have my parts manufctured in China. I also have an industrial design firm that develops all kinds fo products for all kinds of companies including Fortune 100 companies that manufacture almost all if not all of their products in China. If you go to many of these companies, you won't see any manufcturing done there. It's the new paradigm of business. Design, engineer and market the products here and manufacture over there. If you go to Apple, who has some of the best designed and made products on the market, you won't see any manufacturig done there, but they still employ a lot of people mostly highly skilled labor. Anybody who owns a business in California knows that manufacturing here is almost cost prohibitive because of air quality regulations high cost of living, etc. I'm all for the environment, but I'm also a business man and a car guy who wants to provide products to this market.
That being said, lets get on to the technical stuff.
Based on the past products made by my factory who has made hoods etc. for import and domestic cars and motorcycles for several years, the quality is as good as can be produced without using aerospace practices (read cost prohibitive). Based on other hoods produced by this factory that have been used on cars with turbocharges and race cars, my products are safe to use with under hood Turbo Charging applications. They have done testing at race tracks in the past as high speeds without any adverse effects. I've also done my own tests on cars that run hot and left in the sun with no yellowing, fading, delaminating or warping.
All of our carbon car parts are made with high temperature resistant raw material, including resin, gelcoat and other material. There is a UV protective clear coat on all cf surfaces. As you know, nothing lasts forever and any plastic left out in the sun and the elements will eventually degrade. But, who in their right mind would leave their nice car parked outside for years after spending so much time and money on making it pristine? I've seen BMW convertibles that have dteriorating seat belt buckle housings because they were exposed t too much UV. It's just the nature of plastics. However, the factory that is making my parts has left a hood that they made out in the sun for 2 years without fading. Because the clear coat is the same as what is on the surface of modern automotive paint, you can polish it to bring back the shine if it ever does become dull. With the proper care, our cf parts should last for a lifetime without fading or delaminating. I guarantee our parts won't yellow, fade or delaminate for one year after purchase. We have a limited warranty that our products are free of defects in material and/or workmanship for the life of the product under normal use and environmental exposure and conditions (not for race applications). These warrents don't currently show up yet, but will be written into our terms and conditions.
Steel has a CTE of 11.1 and glass is 8.5. The CTE of carbon fiber is nearly Zero, the CTE FOR fiberglass is very low, so the total CTE can be nearly ignored. So the shape of a carbon hood has very little change from Summer to Winter. We aren't currently using kevlar in our parts. It's true that thermoset plastics continue to cure for a long time after their intitial demold time, but so does concrete. They are almost completely cured and very stable with the fiber reinforcement after the initial thermal reaction has cooled down. I am not making highly structural pieces like fenders and core supports, because of the structural implications. For now, I will stick with parts that aren't relied upon to hold the car together.
I am an honest and straight forward guy and don't want anybody to have any misgivings about what I am doing and how I am doing it. I am very excited about Anvil and it's potential in the growing muscle car market. I want it to be a company that provides quality custom parts that people want at a price they can afford. It can't be all things to all people, but we will do our best to satisfy our customers needs. I welcome any questions anybody has. Thank you for your support!
Best, MaTT
ANVil
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Matt:
Thanks you for taking the time to address my questions. (I know they were very very specific, and you chose to be, "Frank" with your answers. I appreciate that)
I'm impressed with you being able to put these types of parts together anywhere in the world and keep things coordinated enough to deal with the types of customers on this board. (They are informed and insist on good quality control)
I look forward to adding some of your parts to my car as that part of the upgrade rises to the top of the priorities list.
Good luck with this endeavor, and I look forward to many more "Options" for us to choose from.
Thanks again,
Best regards,
Ty O'Neal